all over that 520 bridge deal
- April 4th, 2016
- Posted in random coolness
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So Seattle once again has the world’s longest floating bridge. Yes, it’s a bridge, yes, it’s for vehicles (and next summer also peds and bikes and possibly rail later) and it’s made of concrete and it floats.
We had the longest one already, but it was old and creaky and was thinking about sinking and DON’T THINK IT CAN’T HAPPEN WE LOST ANOTHER BRIDGE THAT WAY. It was hilarious. (We are not very good at highways, and between that an Galloping Gertie, I’m not convinced we’re real good at bridges, either. For that, go to Portland.)
Anwyay, before turning the first chunk of it over to vehicle traffic, they invited everybody to go hoof around on it. So of course we did, and that was fun. Several pictures here; lots more (and bigger) on Flickr.
Let’s walk to Kirkland!
PYLONTRON BIDS YOU WELCOME, PUNY CARBON UNIT
I was walking along the barrier between the bike path and main traffic, since later, that won’t be possible. Anna gave me a sign that she was sick of that and I should stop. I’m kind of surprised I didn’t run into Ranma going the other way.
Slightly Disquieting Pipes.
SAME BRIDGE DIFFERENT SIDE CHEAP GIMMICK
THIRD HALF! ARE YOU READY FOR SOME BRIDGE HOCKEY?!
Looking at the old bridge’s drawbridge control station from the new bridge. The new bridge is taller on the west end, so doesn’t need a drawbridge anymore. That makes it stronger in storms. Right now, the old one needs to be closed to traffic kind of a lot, for safety reasons I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH, THANKS.
I DO WHAT I WANT.
And nobody ever gets to do that again (without major traumatic injury anyway) ’cause that section is OPEN NOW TO TRAFFIC. Ha HA ha!
2 comments on Livejournal, 1 comment on Dreamwidth, 8 comments on a Facebook reshare, 40 notes with various comments and replies on Tumblr (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10).
There’s an old bridge from Covington to Cincinnati that has been converted to pedestrian and bicycles (I’ve walked across it once ). Yes, a bridge full of people is heavier than a bridge full of cars. The one over the Ohio River, though old, must be safe enough to use. It’s been full of people for various events. Over the last decade, Cincinnati has done a lot of infrastructure work. Lexington has,too. Most of it for the better.
There was some talk of trying to save one segment of the Alaskan Way Viaduct here as an elevated mini-park – as was done with an obsolete section of elevated rail in New York City after it was replaced with newer and better – but apparently it’s just too unstable.